One game does not make an entire season. But if you listen to most national NFL analysts, or commentators throughout the blogosphere, we now know exactly how the entire season is going to play out.
This is just like 2017 when we knew what was going to happen after Week 1. Some of those “hot takes” included:
“Nobody will be able to score on the Ravens!”
“Sam Bradford is going to be the MVP!”
“How ‘bout them Cowboys! Super Bowl here we come!”
“The Saints will never be able to stop anybody all season with that defense.”
“New England is in some real trouble this year.”
Or we could get specific about many of the takes after the Steelers’ 21-18 win over the Browns in Week 1 of 2017:
“Cleveland will win a lot more games than they did last year.”
“The Steelers will be lucky if they go 8-8.”
The biggest thing Week 2 does in the NFL is to take at least some of these opinions and bring them back to reality. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but at least you can tell a little bit more based on a two-game sample.
Let’s see how these “hot takes” from 2017 looked a little farther down the road:
“Nobody will be able to score on the Ravens!” They did manage to beat the Browns 24-10 in Week 2, but laid an absolute clunker against Jacksonville in Week 3 losing 44-7 in London. They finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs yet again.
“Sam Bradford is going to be the MVP!” How many snaps did Bradford play after Week 1? It was a big surprise when he was inactive in Week 2 against the Steelers. And it only got worse from there.
“How ‘bout them Cowboys! Super Bowl here we come!” Week 2 brought a 42–17 beatdown by the Broncos. They also missed the playoffs at 9-7.
“The Saints will never be able to stop anybody all season with that defense.” They lost in Week 2 to New England 36-20. But after that they went on a nice win streak to finish 11-5 and win the NFC South.
“New England is in some real trouble this year.” AFC Champions.
“Cleveland will win a lot more games than they did last year.” 0-16.
“The Steelers will be lucky if they go 8-8.” How about 13-3?
Getting back to 2018, a one-game sample isn’t going to tell anybody exactly what they need to know about the season forecast. I wonder how these Week-1 “hot takes” are going to play out in 2018:
“The (insert team here) are the real deal!” (Ravens, Bengals, Buccaneers, Redskins, Jets)
“(insert QB here) is going to be the MVP!” (Ryan Fitzpatrick, Joe Flacco, Patrick Mahomes)
“Myles Garrett will be All Pro for the next 10 years”
Or to be Steelers-specific:
“The Steelers are what their record is: a .500 team.”
“Big Ben is washed up.”
Each one of these statements is something I heard or read somewhere or another since Sunday. Will all of these come true? It’s impossible (barring a 3-way tie for MVP). Can any of them come true? Maybe. The Myles Garrett one has some promise, but let’s get more than one week of the season under our belt before we know how it’s all going to fall.
Week 2 of the NFL season helps a lot in the journey towards discovering what’s reasonable to expect and what’s merely an anomaly. So bring on the next set of 16 games, and the all-new “hot takes” that are sure to follow.
At least they’ll have a little bit more substantial basis to back them up.